Indiana coach Tom Crean already has one major victory over North Carolina.

He got Cody Zeller.

Now, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams must figure out how to defend the recruit that got away when No. 14 North Carolina meets top-ranked Indiana tonight in the marquee matchup of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

“He’s the guy that makes everybody else change their defense, and you have to be concerned about him,” Williams said of Zeller. “He gave them a legitimate inside scorer that could foul out the other players. I just think he’s a great player, a great player.”

At Indiana, Zeller means more than that.

As a freshman, he helped put the Hoosiers back on the national map. This year, he’s considered the best big man in America, was a near-unanimous preseason All-America selection and is one of the favorites to be national player of the year.

His impact can be measured one way — in wins and losses. Without Zeller, Crean was 28-66 in three seasons. With him, the Hoosiers are 33-9.

Tonight, he will be the center of attention again, though Crean has his own concerns.

“I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a fast break like theirs here at Assembly Hall,” he said of North Carolina, “and James McAdoo is as good a rebounder on the offensive end as anyone we’ve seen this year or any other year.”

The game pits two of college basketball’s truest blue-blood programs against each other. The schools have combined for 10 national championships and 3,766 wins. The most prominent of their matchups: Indiana’s victory in the 1981 national championship game.

But some of the biggest battles have come off the court.

When the Tar Heels last visited Bloomington in 2004, the Hoosiers had to deal with a recruit that got away — Sean May, who was booed mercilessly in his home city.

That won’t happen this time, in large part because Indiana didn’t let Zeller get away to North Carolina.

Williams was hoping to steal a second Zeller from the Hoosier State, and it almost happened. Zeller’s older brother, Tyler, graduated from North Carolina last year and was a first-round pick in the NBA draft.

“It was real close,” Cody Zeller said yesterday. “They were in my top three.”

Louisville center out four to six weeks

Louisville announced that junior center Gorgui Dieng is out four to six weeks because of a broken left wrist.

Dieng, who will have a screw inserted into his scaphoid bone today, suffered the injury on Friday in an 84-61 victory over Missouri.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino said in a statement that “with a little luck” the 6-foot-11 Dieng will return for the start of Louisville’s Big East schedule in January.